....And so the nice con-artist's email began:

[hyphenate]

"Dear Beloved in Christ...."

I'm getting a kick out of these things. Away from my actual email for a couple of weeks, I've been trying to catch up with all the mail that was in my junk mail folder, trying to determine if something is worth keeping for later perusal. The amount of "Nigerian" type con letters exceeds the amount of genuine mail, including the various newletters and website e-letters, which suddenly makes me think that we need to have some sort of "Do Not Email" service similar to the "Do Not Call" policy.

And so this email's first paragraph reads:

My Dear Beloved One,


It is by the grace of God that I received Christ,Having known the truth, I had no choice than to do what is lawful and right in the sight of God for enternal life and in the sight of man for witness of God?s mercy and glory upon my life. I am Evangelist Mrs Rebecca Van Horn, age 53 and the wife of Mr Dan Van Horn,i am from Netherlands, my husband worked with the Chevron/Texaco for twenty years before he died in the year 2003.We were married for twenty-nine years without a child.

If anyone is interested, I can post the rest of this truly heart-wrenching :rofl: plea for help. Just remember: What goes on in cyberspace, you can't really scream about in cyberspace!

PS: I'm not reading 99% of them. The title of this one did catch my attention, though.

[napoleon_in_rags]

1. I got a buddy who just experienced a Nigerian dating scam at Christian singles site.

Apparently they are going after lonely singles now, playing the part of the soul mate. It would be entertaining if people didn't go for it...To me that's something different than the old "send me $500 so I can send you a million" Nigerian scam, really playing with people's hearts.

[Kat45]

10. I was on one of the major dating sites, and when I googled someone who wrote to me,

(I googled his email address), I found a page warning about him, saying his IP address was in Nigeria.

[Rabblevox]

2. A: You need a better spam filter. B: It's interesting they've moved from Nigeria...

to the Netherlands (and specifically to Christians). Unfortunately, they will suck in more than a few.

[gateley]

3. Next they move on to "O". Expect a sincere plea from Oman soon. nt

[Rabblevox]

5. shouldn't the Netherlands have come before Nigeria then? nt

[gateley]

7. They're not too bright. nt

[xfundy]

6. Watch out for Onan!

That guy made a mess all over my shoes.

[Rabblevox]

8. you were watching the wrong hand. nt

[krispos42]

4. Hmmmm... maybe my Dutch boss is really a Nigerian?

Might explain all the throat-clearing she does. It's really a reflex from her native language which has a lot of those popping noises in it!

:evilgrin:

[Kat45]

9. I used to work in a church and we got these emails daily.

The ol' Nigerian scam with a Christian twist and sent to churches. Many different versions. Sometimes I got more than one in a day.

[ChoppinBroccoli]

11. Want A Good Laugh?

There are a bunch of websites out there that are dedicated to people with stories of how they "scammed the scammers." These Nigerian scams are known as "419 scams." If you Google that term, you'll see all the websites. Some of the stories are flat-out hilarious. I particularly liked the one about the guy who owned a computer store, and ended up leading one particular scammer on for MONTHS, and making the scammer pay money out of his own pocket.

The scammer asked this guy to send him a whole bunch of laptop computers in exchange for a cashier's check (you know how that usually works out). Knowing it was a scam, the guy loaded up a huge box full of garbage and cinder blocks and other stuff, then put one laptop computer (a broken one that had been busted by a sledgehammer) on top of it all, shipped it to Nigeria by FedEx, made the scammer PAY THE SHIPPING (FedEx wouldn't allow the scammer to pick it up unless he paid the shipping, and it was HUNDREDS of dollars), and continued to screw this scammer over multiple times like this over the course of several months. I'll see if I can find the thread. It's definitely worth reading. It's hilarious, but very long, because the guy details everything that happens in a sort of a diary (and you even get to read all the e-mails that get sent back and forth).

There are many others out there. Just Google "419 scam" and you'll see them all.

Here's the link to that story mentioned above: http://www.thescambaiter.com/forum/showthread.php?t=109